CHAPTER 70
S.P. 113 - L.D. 331
An Act Restricting Telemarketers from Blocking Their Telephone Numbers When Making Solicitation Calls
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 10 MRSA §1499-A is enacted to read:
§1499-A. Telemarketing; prohibition on number blocking
1. Definitions. As used in this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings.
A. "Caller identification service" means a service that allows a telephone subscriber to have the telephone number and, where available, name of the calling party transmitted contemporaneously with the telephone call and displayed on a device in or connected to the subscriber's telephone.
B. "Seller" means any person who, in connection with a telemarketing transaction, provides, offers to provide or arranges for others to provide goods or services to the customer in exchange for consideration.
C. "Telemarketer" means any person who, in connection with telemarketing, initiates or receives telephone calls to or from a customer or donor.
D. "Telemarketing" means a plan, program or campaign that is conducted by use of one or more telephones to induce the purchase of goods or services or a charitable contribution and that involves more than one intrastate telephone call. "Telemarketing" does not include the solicitation of sales through the mailing of a catalog that contains a written description or illustration of the goods or services offered for sale, the business address of the seller and multiple pages of written material or illustrations, and that is issued not less frequently than once a year, if the person making the solicitation does not solicit customers by telephone but only receives calls initiated by customers in response to the catalog and during those calls takes orders without further solicitation. For purposes of this paragraph, the term "further solicitation" does not include providing the customer with information about, or attempting to sell, any other item included in the same catalog that prompted the customer's call or in a substantially similar catalog.
2. Prohibition. Except as provided in subsection 3, it is an unfair trade practice, as prohibited by Title 5, section 207, for a seller or telemarketer to fail to transmit or cause to be transmitted the telephone number and, when made available by the telemarketer's carrier, the name of the telemarketer to any caller identification service in use by a recipient of a telemarketing call.
3. Exception. It is not a violation of subsection 2 for a seller or telemarketer to substitute for the name and telephone number used in or billed for making the call:
A. The name of the seller or charitable organization on whose behalf the telemarketing call is placed; and
B. The seller's or charitable organization's customer or donor service telephone number that is answered during regular business hours.
Sec. 2. Effective date. This Act takes effect January 29, 2004.
Effective January 29, 2004.
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